“And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.”
The priest is to examine the sore on the skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is a defiling skin disease. When the priest examines anyone, he shall pronounce them ceremonially unclean. The two diagnostic signs for a defiling skin disease: white hair within the sore and depth greater than the surrounding skin surface. Both signs together produce the unclean declaration. The priest who examines is not diagnosing a medical condition but making a ritual determination: is this person's condition such that they must be excluded from the covenant community's sacred space and social life?
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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